jokin

First off, using the binary correlative, either, to compare four players threw me off completely. Is that your Canadian influence talking? Secondly, although Omar Infante may have a cutesy, baby-sounding last name, he is a scary-good defender at 2B and is having a BABIPistcally frightening year at the plate. Finally, Tuiasosopo is legitimately scary. As all Samoan heritage athletes seem to be, he excelled at football and turned down a full ride to the University of Washington, his Dad is Manu, former scary defensive lineman for the Seahawks.

The Twins certainly promote guys that don't necessarily deserve it, based on need or longevity. I carefully qualified my statement by saying their slow-go, "dominate and master a level first", promotion philosophy is with the guys they consider "legit prospects".

I'm not questioning it specifically- just drawing logical conclusions about a guy 6 years into his professional career- still with holes big enough in his game to drive a truck through. It's certainly not personal, just a pointed point on how rare a guy like Buxton is. Talented guys in general, generally don't see the need to work hard. By the same token, we've never read an article or quote from Hicks related to how hard he works and his internal motivations to succeed like we have about Buxton

We've talked and gushed about it before at the time of the FSN game. Buck's triple that day has to be seen to be disbelived. Still on YouTube, he cruised into Third Base in a little over 10 seconds (Bo Jackson was supposedly fastest ever at around 11.5 seconds).

Great analysi, as usual Jeremy. 1) "Buxton isn't Hicks". This needs to be drilled and re-drilled into Twins fans' and Twins managements' heads. Buxton has at least twice the work ethic as Hicks- there's absolutely no sense of "entitlement" around him- a usually inevitable character trait of most ultra-talented people, at least 3X the talent of Hicks, 5X the internal drive to succeed and looks to be at least 10X faster at adjusting to new challenges and circumstances. 2) "On the plus side of things, here's a guy who has proven to fit in the rarest age-defying category of recent prospects. Guys like Harper and Trout. Harper played in the AFL at 18. Trout played soon after 20. " I've been arguing since spring training that Buck is more than talented enough to be on the Trout Timeline. As of now, Buck is exceeding what Trout did in his second year of pro ball, playing in the toughest A+ level league (although Trout was a year younger). Meanwhile, Harper put up comparatively pedestrian numbers while playing both A and AA in his first year of pro ball, that certainly didn't dissuade the Nats from calling up Harper to the big club. Unless Buxton is significantly banged up from all of his sliding and crashing into walls, his incredible work ethic, goal-driven, 19 year old body can only benefit from the new challenge in AA-AAA level of competition in the perfect playing conditions in Arizona. 3) "I've said for the good part of four months that Buxton's path will lead him to the Futures Game in the Cities next July and that I think he will stick around after that game to start his Major League career." Agreed, it's what I've hoped the Twins have been shooting for all along, and they have Trout, Harper and Machado as examples to assure them that it won't be a disaster by doing so.. The gaping hole in CF for the Twins will still be gaping in July. Buck will be starting in CF after his Futures coronation in front of a record-breaking throng, and will immediately go to work thereafter in helping to re-energize and re-invigorate the club amidst yet another long, lackluster season. 4) "I'm guessing there has been plenty of internal debate - whether the Twins will admit it or not - and that the discussion ends when the Twins realize that there are better reasons to not send him than there are to send him." Only health-related issues or time better spent working individually on strength and fundamentals qualify as reasons for not sending him. To me anyway, seeing live AA and AAA pitching for the first time in AZ and giving him a small leg up going into the spring, plus, learning more about dealing with the assembled national media as he would be prominently in the spotlight as the #1 prospect in all of baseball, would trump the negatives.

It is widely reported that the Twins FO looks to promote primarily only after they feel comfortable that a legit prospect has "mastered" a level. Certainly not a "claim" by any means.

Garza was rated the Twins #1 prospect going into 2007- and Kyle Lohse had also been deemed expendable just the season before Johan's departure, even with the club apparently knowing full well that they wouldn't re-sign Santana . And later, RA Dickey with the "uncoachable" knuckler after Santana. Not many small-market teams can afford getting rid of 3 Cy Young-level talents (plus a potentially solid Lohse) with nothing in return to show for it- whether they are "uncoachable" or not- you have to get some kind of solid return for the single most important commodity in baseball. (That term "uncoachable" just sounds like a copout for old guys on the downside of their careers, with their energy and tolerance levels ebbing for being capable of dealing with young ego-centric and testosterone-filled ballplayers and all of their pecadillos- it's simpler to just get rid of some of the "problems", find more low-maintanence arms and personalities, who literally won't bang down your door or go goofy on Twiter. ) Blame all around here.

Thanks for the update. More evidence demonstrating that Buck's silencing remaining doubters, he's clearly made his adjustments to High A ball, overcome a nagging injury.... and is now ready to climb the next baseball mountain. I hope the Twins are wise enough to assign him to his next mountain and tab him for AFL play. No secret that a lot of us are all-in on the kid, but anyone with a Buxton mancrush has plenty of justification on his side. This kid is driven to fully use his God-given talents, staying focused on the big picture, no ego-confusion like some of the other Twins rising stars are still coping with..... and he has the special knack that all big-timers have to frequently rise to the occasion when most needed. I expect we'll see another quantum jump in his development next spring, inevitably forcing the issue on the Twins by summer, 2014. The club has never seen anything like him athletically. Ben Revere, he of deadly smile and pop-gun arm and bat, was famous for the BEST feature of his game, blazing speed, as he had 44 SBs at age 20 in a full year of low-A ball....and 45 SBs at age 21 in a full year of high-A ball. Buxton has 52 SB on the year so far at age 19, combined (2 steals of 3rd last night)- with at least 13 games remaining on Ft Myers' schedule. And he doesn't even know all the proper techniques on HOW to steal bases yet- it's the WORST feature of his game, the only area of his game that he receives a low grade from evaluators.

Justin's been my favorite Twin for quite some time, but have you forgotten his ongoing concussion issue? That is not a flimsy reason to be concerned. One more moderate-impact collision or slide resulting in something significant relating to his cranium is career-ending. That and his 3-year ongoing struggle to return to his previous MVP form pretty much means you can project to come pretty close to his level of production at pennies on the dollar, no matter how low a figure Justin would be willing to sign for to stay here. I doubt they will "get creative" and actually spend the money they've saved the last 2 years, but that saved money in not re-signing Morneau can be re-directed and focused on signing more and better FA pitching and maybe upping the international signing budget.

I mentioned the McCann option previously. He wouldn't come cheap, but he wouldn't break the bank, either. Great 2-catcher option, not perfect because they're both left-handed, but give Colabello the RH part of a platoon a full-season trial to play a little First, a little DH and OF, and you have some pretty good balance with a McCann/Cola platoon there. I still think exploring the Mauer option part-time at Third until Sano arrives should be more fully explored (my hopes for Plouffe as a long-term option have unfortunately faded), whether they tried to "get creative" with McCann, or not.

I don't want another Dougie Mint or Mark Grace at First Base! Joe Mauer can solve our short-term problems at Third Base w/ a platoon w/ Plouffe (Mauer is more than a good enough athlete to be above average defensively at that position) and still part-time behind the plate. With Doumit, Morneau and Willingham gone, so is the logjam.....giving Colabello & Parmelee the spots on the super-cheap, plus the Cuban- Jose Abreu (all-in offer of 6/$80M offer, we can dream, can't we?), or a James Loney or Kendrys Morales (on the budget, intermediate-term offer- 3 years/$X?), both are about the same age when the Twins signed Willingham and Doumit) to take the combined ABs at First base and DH. Finally, no more 3-catcher lineups!

BR lists Greg Reynolds as a #2 overall pick in 2006 by the Rockies. I was surprised to hear you write that he was still in organized baseball, as his career as been nothing but one disappointment after another. 3 teams in 3 years, and this year all of a sudden, everything has clicked for him at the AAA level. Since the Reds are ridiculously loaded with top-end SP prospects, could the Twins lure him away in the offseason with a major league contract offer? He's still only just-turned 28 years old. His story is somewhat reminiscent to Andrew Albers, morphing into a finesses pitcher after some catastophic injuries: Right-hander Reynolds looking forward to callup | reds.com: News

To be fair, it has been reported that Liriano turned down a (likely) low-ball Twins offer during the FA open season. It was pretty clear that the ties had been cut between the 2 parties well before then. Liriano has obviously made a great career decision. And you and many others were scratching heads at the time a year ago when the "trade" (dump) was contemplated and ultimately consummated. The only overbearing front office concern a year or so ago was achieving their stated goal of cutting the payroll in 2013 and then again in 2014. So there's that to look forward to again in the offseason.

Speaking of dinner, some of us are dining-in early. Thanks so much for that stomach-turning proposition. Speaking of stomach-turning, TV turning, propositions.....Joe Mauer has now been pulled from tonight's 3-catcher lineup.....and possibly goes on the 7-day concussion DL. Pardon me while I lose my rib roast.

Did you get a chance to see him play last night, Stringer?

Sounds like Meyer was being a little mean on those poor, over-matched teenagers in the GCL. In this particular case, though......wow, what great news!

Great news. Hopefully all goes well and we can look forward to a September call-up or AFL.

They have a recent track record of reigniting former top-end talent to previous levels or higher. They definitely are the team you want to go to to get a fresh start! Reusse today said it could have come down to the Twins pitching coach convincing Liriano into throwing too many fastballs up in the zone. Charts confirm that the Pittsburgh staff revamped Liriano's approach. He's throwing the FBs less and sliders and change-ups more, and the quality of Liriano's FB are greatly improved over the last 2 years. No way to spin this, another pitching debacle, more the Twins fault, than Liriano's.

The converse of your argument would be that a team would be just as well-served by NOT calling anyone up. Besides the chance to raise fiscal revenue by a few percent by selling more tickets after Labor Day (always a tough sell for a non-contender), what does it hurt for possible 2014 rookies to get a glimpse at big-league life- and all that that entails? The answer? Nothing. What does it help for individual development? Possibly something. "Somethings" like: familiarization to a tougher environment, added motivation to reach the pinnacle of your sport and, when you're 20-25 years old, every rep helps your development, even watered-down reps.

"Too many talents" and "the Minnesota Twins" are two terms rarely used together in the same sentence.

I would hope that's how it works. Ron Gardenhire has been employed by the Twins organization for the last 25 years, the last 23 on the front lines, providing imput or making final playing decisons with the major league club. For all intents and purposes, Gardy is Senior Management. The manager should have been one of the first 2 people shown video of a prospective starter, proposed to take the place of a premier big league SS.

I agree.....and I hope that "Priority One" is what Ryan is tending to, as he's down in Rochester this week. But, I have my doubts, as "affiliate concern", particularly Rochester- where the relationship has been rocky, may override "P-1". Does anyone know if Worley is soon ready for re-activation?

That was my vote. In a lost season, after Hendy "passed the test" in the doubleheader on August 9 against the Sox, I'm surprised that he hasn't already been called up. He backed it up in Roc. with another great outing last night and a QS previous to that. With Gibson down and Deduno ailing, we clearly have the space. But, is there an "affiliates!" override vote that brings back Pedro Hernandez and/or inserts Swarzak or Duensing, instead?

Happy for Tonkin, but he will be back in Rochester by the weekend. Any inside tea leaves or indications on who is currently in favor to taking that 5th spot in the rotation? Whether it's Friday or Saturday, it's going to happen. Pedro Hernandez pitched last night, so Saturday would be his normal starting slot. And it wouldn't disrupt Rochester's run. And that brings up the question, are the Twins fully committed to "all hands on deck" for the Red Wings playoff run?....meaning.... that all of the demoted Major Leaguers and rostered players are "hands off" until the Wings are eliminated?

Calling Pedro Hernandez up from New Britain would solve the Rochester roster disruption problem quite easily.